There’s no hiding the fact that we are living through some seriously uncertain times at the moment and I know that for a lot of us, this virus has impacted us and our families in ways that we never could have imagined.
These uncertain times can lead us to become blinded by what solutions we could create for ourselves and our clients. Although uncertainty isn’t something that we are only experiencing now, it is definitely heightened by the fact that there is a worldwide pandemic currently threatening us.
I would like to encourage you NOT to let the feeling of fear overtake you. To be the solution and the hope in your community and through your business. For many of us, our business is way more than just making money or seeing how many followers we can get and convert. It’s about doing what we love and really helping the people we are the best set up to help.
So, if we can take some time to set aside the fear and uncertain feelings and work toward nurturing our audience, we will be stronger and steadier when this all passes. Not only will we be stronger, but our clients will also be there; ready to buy and invest in us. The question is: how do we do this and where do we start?
Firstly, we should be focusing on nurturing and building our audience, even if our audience isn’t currently buying from us or we aren’t able to sell at this time (some businesses are non-essential and are unable to work), we need to build community. The internet has given us an amazing ability to create community and connections and now is the time to leverage that.
Here are the basic steps toward doing just this:
Create or dedicate an online platform to build and create community or connections:
First things first, you need to decide or create an online space that is your own, where you can nurture your audience.
For everyone, this will be different. Maybe you have a Facebook or Instagram profile, maybe you have a Facebook group or you are just connecting with your past and potential clients through emails or messages.
Create content that tells your story and educates your audience:
Once you have your online space, you need to create content that really tells your story and educates your audience about you and your business. We often think that when people show interest in our business they know what we do, but (I’m sure you might have realised) people don’t read as much as you think. They skim over headings and content and make up their mind about you without making further enquiries.
Answer basic questions like:
- What your business does and why?
- How does your product or service work?
- How can your audience purchase your product or service?
- Why is this beneficial for your audience?
These questions are the key to helping your audience trust and connect with you without them needing to ask you these questions themselves. (Your potential clients ALWAYS wants convenience and easy access to you)
When you are creating content to post on your chosen platform, try asking yourself whether you would understand what it is that you are talking about if you had to be a person seeing this post for the very first time. One-liner sentences that accompany our designs will not give your audience enough information about what it is that you do and what differentiates you from your competitors.
Also, be sure not to answer all of these questions in one go and spread it out to keep your audience captivated.
Offer value and show them your value:
What we as individuals value can have a higher ‘currency’ than money. What do I mean by this?
When you demonstrate your value, skills and specialities you make people understand that what they are getting is more than money can ever buy. So, therefore, you need to focus on the different value aspects that your businesses offer.
When we speak about offering our clients value with the content that we post, we are referring to actionable tips and advice that they can really benefit from. The other value that we refer to is showing your audience what your value is, why what you offer can change their lives or is an invaluable service or product, and what makes you unique (by the way, most of what makes your business unique is you!)
Are you offering enough valuable tips that your audience can benefit from and are you showcasing yourself enough to make them understand what your value is and therefore, why you charge what you charge?
Make connections and Maintain relationships:
One of the most important aspects of running a successful business is making real and genuine connections and maintaining those relationships.
These connections don’t only apply to new and potential clients or leads but also apply to your past clients and other business connections. Most of the time, when you approach someone genuinely, they can sense it and it can make all the difference. Even if that person has said no or is currently saying no to purchasing your product or service, that doesn’t mean that they won’t buy from you in the future, so keep showing up for them.
Make sure that you are asking these people genuine questions like:
How are you doing?
How are you feeling?
What do you need right now?
These conversations help us to stay ‘top of mind’ with the people we are connecting with and create an audience that is ready to invest in us. If not right now, then as soon as they are able to.
Don’t ghost your audience out of fear. Show up for them and they will show up for you!
Imagine not hearing from a regular business connection during the COVID pandemic and then, all of a sudden, when everything returns to ‘normal’, they ask you for a sale? Think of how that would make you feel?
Not good, right?
Connections and conversations can go a long way. Use them wisely.
Showing up consistently sends subconscious messages to our audience:
When you are consistently showing up you are not only staying ‘top of mind’ but you are also sending a subconscious message that demonstrates how reliable you are in the back-end of your business or when your clients work with you.
Every time you post or send a message it triggers your audience consciously and/or subconsciously. Make sure you are considering what subconscious messages you are sending as well.
Consistently posting also means that you are building recognition and trust and when our connections and audience are familiar with us and trust us, then they buy from us because they believe in us.
Staying consistent plays a huge role in the success of your business and is what will get your business through these tough times.
Be the hope:
Finally, I want to encourage you to be the hope and the light at the end of this very uncertain tunnel. Even though you might be feeling uncertain right now and you have all the reasons to feel this way, try and work toward solutions for you and your audience, rather than allowing yourself to be consumed by the fear of the unknown.
If this means that you need to make a space for your audience to get together to see how you can support one another and come up with solutions for one another, then be the one to create a space for that to happen and be the leader.
When you take on the role of being a leader people will quickly see you as a trusted person and an expert in your field, and this will give you the power to get through this pandemic successfully.
Don’t stop being the HOPE and the SOLUTION.
I hope this has encouraged you to reach out and build connections, both during this Covid time and in the future with whatever our new normal has install for us.